because the hardware is only a piece of the cost. your smartbook has linux on it, so yeah why pay more than $200 for a lousy user experience and access to everything you can always get with linux anyway?

god forbid anyone pay for software anymore! even when it's very, very slick!

Well, in this case this is certainly true. Seems to me that Apple took the easy way and ripped the OS straight from the iPhone.

If that is the case, Apple had to pay only for development of new hardware as the software was allready there. Why then pay extra, if you can get hardware with similar specs for half the price.

I'm entirely unimpresssed so far, for one big reason: I was expecting some kind of innovative input system. The problem with the iPad as we saw it is that you can't type while holding it, and you can't type for any period of time with it. You need a table (and the iPad on the table) or a really awkward seating position to use it, at which point I think you might as well just pull out a laptop, and avoid getting RSIs from the typing with your wrists up that the tablet looks to require. After all Apple's patents on innovative multitouch gesturing and rumors of something new (touch-sensitive case, etc.) I was sorely let down the moment the onscreen keyboard came up.

With that said, the price is a lot lower than I pegged it at, and the 3G deal is interesting (really, though, AT+T? They can't even handle the iPhone, much less a tablet!) I've already got my mobile needs covered between a netbook, laptop, N810, Android phone, and nook, so I certainly won't be picking one up, but $500 is a lot easier to justify than $1000.

@bri3d good point. for any long time tablet/pad users this has always been a problem. you could use one handed/finger typing. but that gets tough after a while. hand writing recognition quality isn't worth the correction time. i expect apple put a lot of work into trying that technology, but without a stylus it's hard to get used to. i would hate to have to use a style by the way; people clamor for them but they're really awkward to use.

the price is ok with me, but i really don't want to pay for twice. 2 unlimited data plans is still just unlimited... so why do i have to pay twice for the same amount of data? yes, i realize the AT&T unlimited is not unlimited, but still i'm not a data abuser. even on an ipad i wouldn't be the data pig that brings the network down. i really use it mostly for work, so i'm looking for a different set of features i might not get. i don't think i can justify bringing a ipad to work if it won't be useful there.

How am I supposed to hold it so much? If I'm on a train here, and I have that to watch a movie on, I can't just plop it down on my lap. I have to hold it for the whole two hours.

Meanwhile, the guy sitting next to me with a Linux "you get what you pay for" netbook can watch a movie with the computer resting on his lap and the screen magically tilted to face him.

How do I play any normal game on it? One handed? Do I hold it like a giant D-pad?

The iPhone and iPod touch you can hold and manipulate it with your thumbs. This thing is huge. My muscles hurt just looking at someone using it. I can't fathom handling it for a long time. I can't even use a Gamecube controller cause the stick is too loose.

Wonderful for web browsing? Without Flash? I tried the no-Flash experience with my SGI. Every day someone's shooting me a link to Youtube, which is inevidably followed by "Oh you're on that computer with no Flash hahah you should get Windows".

That's OK for a historical computer. Not for a brand new $500 tablet that bills itself as God's gift to the web.

They took the iPod Touch and just mindlessly blew it up. Where's this "design" everyone raves about with so much passion?

Frapazoid wrote:Wonderful for web browsing? Without Flash? I tried the no-Flash experience with my SGI. Every day someone's shooting me a link to Youtube, which is inevidably followed by "Oh you're on that computer with no Flash hahah you should get Windows".

and seriously, how much value do you really put on those flash links? it's YOUTUBE for gods sake; the cesspool of adolescent humor. other than that flash is used for adverts (no thanks you!). it's a very rare website that would put some real functionality behind a flash menu. i would consider that poor design.

i flash block, and ad block. it's WAY better cruising the internet without that crap.

if i can 'hold the internet in my hands', i only want to hold the best!

i gave up trying to surf on an sgi years ago, even without flash the speed was gruesome. some sites has dynamic forums that would literally crawl during the render.

if you aren't sure about the ipad watch the keynote presentation on apple website. it puts it in perspective in a way that the web-r-net-peanut-gallery can only grope at with their ham-fisted, slapped together, tablet wanna be's that the linux besotted, trinket hawkers at CES harped ad-nauseum.

It's because YouTube already had a significant investment in H.264, since Flash 10 and the iPhone both support it as well as Chrome and Safari.

I really wish the Mozilla people could just bypass the patent issues the same way Linux distributions bypass the MP3 patent debacle and the libdvdcss ruling - by requiring users to promise that they're legal to use H.264. Trying to stay on the straight-and-narrow makes sense, but it's frustrating to only have Theora support. Almost no hardware and very little software supports Theora so it's not going to catch on for the Web, even if it's all Firefox gets.

At any rate, the iPad will certainly have a native YouTube app, just like its iPhone/iPod family.

Frapazoid wrote:Mmmmmm I kinda get where he's going with it. I watched his presentation.

I think I would get one if I had the cash for it.

I cannot, physically, picture typing on one but I have a PC for that anyway.

i was wishy-washy on it until i saw the job keynote, then i started to appreciate the use sace they they are trying to address, not the one i wanted addressed by the table/pad. which confidentially i hadn't completely formulated except for some vague bitching. once i turned my head around, and before the gadget greed kicked in, i got a sense of what it would be like to use it.

don't forget there is a keyboard dock for it. clumsy.... but it's a keyboard at least.

- No camera- Lacks useful ports and connectors. (There is more than enough space in that device for simple USB connector.)- No multitasking. (Why 2 cores in that Cortex-A9 processor.)- Looks like every other tablet, except has less connectors. (Apple wants to sell you some expensive adapters.)

And poking screen with fingers is not a great idea if you have gigantic hands.

Nintendo DS was innovative, iPad is just iPhone without phone, but I am sure it will still sell very well.